A number of news media, both print and TV, are proclaiming that the “Taliban are transitioning and growing in sophistication.”
This statement shows a total lack of historical perspective.
The Taliban are using tactics that Islamic armies have used for almost a millennium. Starting back at Manzikert, 1071, Saladin at Hattin, 1187, and the Crusader wars, one can see that little has changed in Islamic campaigning.
The main lessons of Islamic military campaigns are ones of flexibility, adaptability, surprise, ambush, feint-withdrawal-envelope, and deception.
IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices, are the only Islamic tactical innovation now being used in Afghan and Iraq.
To paraphrase Ralph Peters from his new book ENDLESS WARS: The Muslim world cannot field great armies as it once did, nor do they present an existential danger to the West. Quoting Peters: “Yet, the deadly annoyances of the present are indisputably an extension of competition that began in the seventh century.”
I am working on a book review for ENDLESS WAR which is destined to be a classic.
